Despite Blowout Game, Super Bowl XLVIII Is Most-Watched TV Show Ever (TVNewser) That giant sucking sound you heard during the Super Bowl Sunday wasn’t viewers changing the channel. Despite it being a blowout, the Seattle Seahawks’ win over the Denver Broncos averaged 111.5 million people, more than any television program in U.S. history, surpassing the 2012 game on NBC when the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in a much closer game — 111.3 million watched that Super Bowl. The game is also now the most-watched program on Fox, breaking the 111.0 million viewer mark for the 2011′s Super Bowl, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers. Adweek / VideoWatch Officially, according to Adobe Analytics, Fox’s live stream of Super Bowl XLVIII averaged 528,000 viewers. According to Fox, that’s the biggest live stream of a sporting event in history (a number that is hard to prove, though it would seem to top recent Summer Olympics and March Madness streams). Capital New York The ratings continue to show that the Super Bowl is a juggernaut unlike anything else on TV. Three of the last four Super Bowls have set TV ratings records. While most broadcast programming is losing viewers in an increasingly fragmented video landscape, football — and the Super Bowl in particular — remains untouched by the changes happening in the rest of the media industry. TVSpy The ratings are in for Super Bowl XLVIII, and interestingly enough, the leading market wasn’t Seattle or Denver: As the Seahawks defeated the Broncos 43-8, Kansas City drew the highest ratings, posting a 58.1 rating / 78 share, meaning 78 percent of TVs in use in the Kansas City market were turned to Fox affiliate WDAF. TVSpy Viewers of Little Rock, Ark. Fox affiliate KLRT lost eight minutes of what would normally be prime Super Bowl viewing when the station’s transmitter lost power. The station told viewers on its Facebook page, “We hope to have it restored ASAP. We sincerely apologize.” PRNewser From Vegas to Madison Avenue, everyone was looking to get in on some Super Bowl action. For marketers, that means standing out from the crowd. To accomplish these two things, JCPenney thought it would be a good idea to send out fake drunk tweets.

Disney’s Interactive-Media Unit to Lay Off Several Hundred People (WSJ) Walt Disney Co.’s interactive-media unit is preparing to lay off several hundred people despite a strong launch for its videogame Infinity, according to people close to the company. The cuts at Disney Interactive, which has undergone multiple rounds of layoffs in recent years as it struggled to reach profitability, are expected to begin after the media giant releases its quarterly financial results Wednesday, these people said. Disney Interactive has about 3,000 employees. Variety The division, which has long struggled to turn a profit and has undergone a series of layoffs over the years, can claim only two positive quarters in the past five years. LA Times / Company Town The layoffs would follow other recent cuts. In January 2013, Disney Interactive cut 50 jobs and closed Austin, Texas-based Junction Point Studios, the developer responsible for the Epic Mickey titles. In January 2011, the company shut down Propaganda Games, the development studio responsible for the Tron: Evolution video game, and laid off about 200 people.

Jerry Seinfeld on Diversity in Comedy: ‘Who Cares? Are You Making us Laugh or Not?’ (BuzzFeed) At the height of Seinfeld’s popularity, the NBC comedy was repeatedly accused of presenting an exclusively “white” view of its diverse New York City setting. During Jerry Seinfeld’s BuzzFeed Brews with CBS This Morning interview on Monday, BuzzFeed business editor Peter Lauria asked about the enduring criticism, which has carried over to his Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Web series. The Crackle docu-comedy featured white male performers (like Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Alec Baldwin, and Michael Richards) in the first batch of episodes, but later included Sarah Silverman and Tina Fey. “People think it’s the census or something,” Seinfeld said of the assertion that all pop culture should accurately reflect society. “This has gotta represent the actual pie chart of America? Who cares? Funny is the world that I live in. You’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested. I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that.” Gawker Seinfeld is downplaying the work of everyone from Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby to Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling and Eddie Huang, who are all in various stages of their own sitcoms that just might turn out to be the next Seinfeld. Capital New York “Network TV just seems smaller to me than the Internet,” Seinfeld said Monday night. “Why would I put a show on a big heavy rectangle in your house when I can put it in your pocket? I would much rather put it in your pocket.”